Stanley McChrystal backs gun restrictions

Retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal backed banning assault weapons on Tuesday, saying guns like the M4 and M16 belong in the hands of soldiers, not on the streets.

”I spent a career carrying typically either a M16 and later, a M4 carbine,” McChrystal said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “And a M4 carbine fires a .223 caliber round, which is 5.56 millimeters, at about 3,000 feet per second. When it hits a human body, the effects are devastating. It’s designed to do that. That’s what our soldiers ought to carry.”

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He added, “I personally don’t think there’s any need for that kind of weaponry on the streets and particularly around the schools in America. I believe that we’ve got to take a serious look — I understand everybody’s desire to have whatever they want — we have to protect our children and our police and we have to protect our population. And I think we have to take a very mature look at that.”

McChrystal, who resigned as the top commander in Afghanistan after a Rolling Stone article portrayed him criticizing President Barack Obama, was promoting his memoir, “My Share of the Task.”

Obama is preparing to introduce legislation aiming to prevent mass shootings by the end of the month. Vice President Joe Biden is leading a task force on the issue and is reportedly considering a ban on assault weapons.

“I think we have to look at this legislation,” McChrystal said. “The number of people killed by firearms is extraordinary compared to other nations. I don’t think we’re a bloodthirsty culture, and we need to look at everything we can do to safeguard our people.”

"McChrystal, who resigned as the top commander in Afghanistan after a Rolling Stone article portrayed him criticizing President Barack Obama, was promoting his memoir, “My Share of the Task.”

This past Memorial Day, I spoke with Mary Tillman (Pat Tillman’s mother) who said seeing Gen. Stanley McChrystal in the news was “like rubbing salt in a wound.” Unfortunately, this old general just won’t fade away, as he’s now on the talk show circuit to promote his new memoir. The book jacket for “My Share of the Task” promises to “frankly explore the major episodes and controversies of his eventful career.”

However, despite McChrystal’s much vaunted “candor,” his memoir whitewashes or ignores the controversies of his career. For example, he simply repeats his lecture circuit BS that there was no cover-up of Pat Tillman’s 2004 friendly-fire death, merely “well-intentioned mistakes.” And, McChrystal “still declines to confirm or deny the accuracy of the quotes” of Michael Hasting’s “Rolling Stone” profile which got him fired (McChrystal doesn’t even mention Hastings by name, nor discusses his 2012 book, “The Operators” which details “Le’Affair Rolling Stan”).

In April 2011, just after McChrystal was supposedly cleared by the Pentagon’s NYT reporter Thom Shanker of “all wrongdoing” in the “Rolling Stone” case, President Obama appointed him to head up the “Joining Forces” program to support military veterans and their families. In response, Mary Tillman said, “It’s a slap in the face to appoint this man” … “He deliberately helped cover up Pat’s death”… someone who has a heartfelt desire to help families would not have been involved in the cover-up of a soldier’s death…”

McChrystal has said, “The one thing you can never, and should never want to dodge, is responsibility.” But, he has “dodged” taking responsibility for his central role in the Tillman cover-up, the use of torture by JSOC forces under his command, how it appears he helped “box in” President Obama into his strategically flawed Afghan War “surge,” and for “Le’Affair Rolling Stan (for details, see the post, "Never Shall I Fail My Comrades" -- The Dark Legacy of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, at the Feral Firefighter blog).

Finally, his “official” story of killing of Abu Zarqawi contradicts both Marc Bowden and Matthew Alexander’s previous accounts (“We found Zarqawi in spite of the way the task force [JSOC TF 145] did business”). And he omits the backstory to the capture of Saddam.

In the past, I used to have a grudging respect for McChrystal when he simply refused to comment about the Pat Tillman story. But, if McChrystal won’t confess all, I feel he ought to take the advice of Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, who offered up a barbed assessment of how the White House had “spun” the Bin Laden raid: “I have a new communications approach to recommend … Shut … up.”

McChrystal needs to study ballistics. Yes, the M4/M16 fires a .223 projectile at 3,000 feet a second. But it also only weighs 62 grains and is a full metal jacket. Part of the definition of "assault weapon" is that if fires a low to medium-powered round. This "devastating" weapon isn't even legal to hunt big game with in many states because it is underpowered.

McChrystal needs to study ballistics. Yes, the M4/M16 fires a .223 projectile at 3,000 feet a second. But it also only weighs 62 grains and is a full metal jacket. Part of the definition of "assault weapon" is that if fires a low to medium-powered round. This "devastating" weapon isn't even legal to hunt big game with in many states because it is underpowered.

McChrystal needs to study ballistics. Yes, the M4/M16 fires a .223 projectile at 3,000 feet a second. But it also only weighs 62 grains and is a full metal jacket. Part of the definition of "assault weapon" is that if fires a low to medium-powered round. This "devastating" weapon isn't even legal to hunt big game with in many states because it is underpowered.

McChrystal is incorrect. Current gun laws already restrict the M4 and M16 to only federally-licensed citizens. The AR15 only looks like an M16 but does not perform like one. Every gun is an 'assault' weapon which is a non-specific label liberals use to muddy the debate. Again, McChrystal benefited from an armed detail but does want us to choose how we are protected. Remember, this guy voted for Obama in 2008 so it is evident where he stands on the issues.

Why are Liberals avoiding the real causes of this type of tragedy? Mental illness, pharmaceutical drugs, and the media's Pavlovian conditioning violence are the real causes. Indeed, the FBI is reporting that almost twice the number of murders are done with hammers.

INCONVENIENT FACT: According to no less an authority than the peer-reviewed Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, countries with stringent gun control laws have higher murder and suicide rates than those without.

DOCUMENTATION: "Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?" A Review of International and Some Domestic Evidence by Don B. Kates and Gary Mauser, Volume 30, Number 2 of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, pages 649-694. (To download a PDF copy of the journal article, simply Google the title. It is available on the web free of charge.)

QUOTE FROM ARTICLE: "If you are surprised by our findings, so are we. We did not begin this research with any intent to “exonerate” handguns, but there it is — a negative finding, to be sure, but a negative finding is nevertheless a positive contribution. It directs us where not to aim public health resources."

INDIRECTION: The trick hoplophobes always use is to say that America has higher gun-murder rates than other countries, but many of those "murders" are criminals killed in the act of committing violent crimes. Compare absolute murder rates, and the result is "more guns, less murder." (Source: GunFacts.info);

SECOND INCONVENIENT FACT: According to DOJ crime statistics, guns are used by US citizens 2.5 million times per year to prevent violent crimes like rape, robbery, home-invasion and carjacking, 99% of the time without a shot being fired. (Source: GunFacts.info)

THIRD INCONVENIENT FACT: "Assault weapons" (AKA semiautomatic rifles) are used in less than 1% of gun crimes. (Source: GunFacts.info)

QUESTION: If gun-free zones make people safe, then why don't we declare the immediate vicinity of the President and Vice-President to be gun-free zones and send the Secret Service home? Or are gun-free zones good enough for our kids, but not good enough for our overlords?

METAPHOR: America has more private gun ownership than most other countries, so naturally there are more gun murders. America also has more hospitals than most other countries, so naturally we have more people dying in hospitals. Does that mean we should outlaw hospitals?